


Ten Years to Life

by uptoolate



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, M/M, Non-Linear Narrative
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2015-04-14
Packaged: 2018-03-22 22:36:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3746185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uptoolate/pseuds/uptoolate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy is missing and Nico is dispatched to find him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ten Years to Life

Annabeth expects the knock at her door. She expects the face she sees when she opens the door. What she does not expect is the hard slap. She reels back, and Jason Grace follows her into her small, tidy living room.

Before she can say anything, Jason says, “he’s gone. Happy?”

She retreats behind the counter of the little kitchen, and she can feel Jason seething from his position near the door. Ice drops from the fridge into a wet dishrag settled under the dispenser. Annabeth holds the rag to her cheek before she turns to face Jason. He’s still silhouetted against the light coming through the open door, and Annabeth feels blinded against him.

“Jason, close the door,” she says. “I don’t want any of the neighborhood kids to hear.”

To Annabeth’s surprise, Jason complies. The light dies out, and the two are left in the dimness that comes before the sun sets and the indoor lights come on.

“I knew the baby was at Hazel’s,” Jason says, and Annabeth knows he is trying to explain why he slapped her without checking first. Jason was holding back, she is sure, because at twenty-seven, he is every bit as strong as he was as a teenager. She knows. He trains with her husband. Trained.

She hopes the slap doesn’t leave a bruise. But then again, it would fit right in with her red and swollen eyes and lips that have been bitten raw and bloody.

“I would never have asked if I wasn’t so desperate. I’ve waited three weeks. No one else is capable of finding him. What else would you have me do?” she asks, and she wonders if Jason can hear the pleading in her voice.

“Anything,” is Jason’s reply.

“And what if our situations were reversed? What would you do to find _him_?”

Jason sighs. “Anything.”

He slumps onto her couch in her tiny, welcoming living room - in her tiny, welcoming home - and Annabeth pulls out a bottle of the strongest alcohol they have before she joins him.

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

“Why are you doing this?” Jason begs. He knows he must keep his voice under control, but he can’t help the reedy whine that is snaking its way out of his mouth.

“Because Annie asked me to,” Nico says, without looking up from his packing. His black knapsack is open on the bed, and Jason wants to unsheathe his gladius and rip it to shreds.

“So what?” Jason counters. “You can just tell her you changed your mind. _I’ll_ tell her you changed your mind.”

“I promised.”

“What about the promises you’ve made to me?” Jason says, and his control is cracking.

Nico looks up, then crosses the room and throws his arms around Jason.

“I love you. More than life,” Nico says as he stares into Jason’s eyes. “But this is who we are. We don’t leave anyone behind. I have to find him.”

“Then I’ll come with you,” Jason blurts, and he knows Nico will shoot him down.

Nico’s smile is kind and lights up his entire face. “You can’t. They need you here. I’ll be gone and back before anyone even misses me.”

He kisses Jason deeply, then returns to his knapsack and slips it on his back. His black sword is buckled around his waist, and Jason wonders how he missed it being put on.

With one last smile, Nico fades into the shadows, and Jason says, “I miss you.”

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Nico expects to find Percy wounded, but not dying. Nico would feel Percy dying. He expects to find him fighting for his life against a terrible monster or held captive by a crazed god. He does not expect to find Percy holed up in a run-down Holiday Inn eating pizza and guzzling a beer. The TV is on, and Percy seems very interested in the program. He doesn’t even look surprised to see Nico suddenly appear in his room. Instead, he raises a pizza-fisted hand and says, “just a sec, Nico, this is a really good part.”

Nico strides to the TV and slashes his sword through it.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Percy yells, jumping belatedly from the bed to protect the TV. “They’re going to charge that to my card!”

Nico produces a wad of cash and throws some of it on the bed, uncounted.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Nico repeats Percy’s words. “Annie is worried sick.”

Percy shrugs and drops back onto the bed.

“Annabeth is worried about work. Annabeth is worried about the baby,” he says. “Annabeth is not worried about me.”

Nico stomps over the broken glass from the TV and stands directly in front of Percy. He watches as Percy continues eating pizza with either feigned or real nonchalance. Nico can’t tell.

Percy has the box open next to him on the white sheets. It looks to Nico like he’s eaten about six slices. Nico also notices this is not Percy’s first beer.

“Want some?” Percy offers. “I’m getting full.”

Percy raises the pizza to his mouth again, and Nico slaps it out of his hand. It flies through the air and hits the dull beige wall with a satisfying squelching noise.

Percy doesn’t even flinch. He reaches for the beer. It’s off the nightstand and against the wall, too, before Percy’s hand even gets close.

“Pack up whatever shit you came with, Percy,” Nico growls. “You’re going home.”

“I’m not,” Percy says softly, not meeting Nico’s eyes.

Nico reaches for him, and before his hand can move three inches, Percy is standing on the other side of the bed, his sword drawn and pointed at Nico.

“I’m not,” Percy repeats, louder.

Nico turns away and looks into the bathroom. There’s nothing fancy here. Toilet, tub, sink. Grey tile, grey vanity. His reflection in the mirror over the sink is taunting him. _You could be home with Jason right now_ , that Nico says. He makes an obscene gesture at himself and goes back to the main room.

Percy is sitting back on the bed, slowly eating another piece of pizza, but his sword is still drawn.

Nico stands in front of him at the foot of the bed. “What’s going on, Percy? Maybe I can help.”

Percy stops chewing and looks at Nico shrewdly for a moment. He slowly lowers the pizza back into its box, then crawls forward on the bed, closer to Nico. Nico notes he stops before he’s within reach of Nico’s long arms.

“You could help me,” Percy says, and Nico sees the fire in Percy's eyes, the intensity that used to turn Nico inside out when he was a boy. It is still mesmerizing. “I would let you help me.”

“What is it?” Nico says, and he hates the breathless way his voice comes out. Hates to admit Percy still holds some sway over him.

“Come with me,” Percy says, and he’s grinning at Nico slyly, seductively.

Nico backs away until he reaches the opposite wall. He feels the glass crunch again under his boots. His brain is firing off one rapidly repeating message: _danger!_

Percy scoots forward on the bed until he can put his feet on the floor. Suddenly he’s too close to Nico. Nico can feel Percy’s breath on his face.

“It would be fun, Nico. We could be together. Killing monsters, going on quests.”

He wants that, doesn’t he? Nico is speechless, and his breath is coming rapidly.

Percy’s fingers lightly touch his chest, and Nico should shadow them both away right now, but he is suddenly powerless, and his feet are rooted to the spot. Percy’s face is close, too close. Percy’s lips are moving against his, prying his mouth open. Percy’s tongue pushes past his teeth. Nico gasps, and his eyes flutter closed.

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

“I”m just so confused right now, Nico,” Jason tells him. “I need time to think.”

Before Nico can say anything, Jason throws on his shirt and readjusts his pants to better hide the erection. He leaves the Hades cabin without another word.

Nico is stunned. What just happened? Just two days ago, Jason had told him he’d worked through his confusion. Told him he’d leave Piper, be with Nico only. So why was he running away again? Nico throws himself back on his bed and blinks tears out of his eyes.

There is a soft knock at the door. Percy enters without waiting for permission. He takes a look at Nico and says, “rough day?”

Nico eyes him through his curtain of long, dark lashes. “You could say so, I guess.”

Percy snorts and flops on the bed next to Nico. He rests his head against Nico’s shoulder. “You and me both, kid.”

“Really?” Nico asks. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“It’s just, I had another fight with Annie,” Percy confides. “I don’t know what she wants from me sometimes. I do everything I can to make her happy, but it isn’t ever enough. She’s mad because I don’t want to go stay with her dad over Christmas.”

“Can’t you and Annabeth work out a compromise?”

“I don’t know. I guess,” Percy concedes. “I just am starting to wonder if I want this relationship more than she does. It feels like I make all the compromises, you know?”

Nico does know. He turns to face Percy, and Percy turns to face him. Nico notices that Percy doesn’t ask _him_ what’s wrong, not that Nico could tell about his problems with Jason, anyway.

Percy stares at him until Nico feels uncomfortable. The question, when he asks it, is little more than a whisper. “How old are you, Nico?”

“Sixteen,” Nico whispers in reply. He doesn’t know why they’re whispering, because no one else is around, but if Percy’s doing it, it must be what they should do.

“You’ve grown extremely handsome,” Percy says, his voice thick and deep. “How have I just now noticed?”

Nico says nothing, but he feels Percy’s hand brush his cheek, stroke his neck, slide down the front of his shirt.

“Can I kiss you?” Percy asks, but his lips are pressed to Nico’s before Nico can even begin to nod his head.

The kissing and the touching, it heats, spreads, until both boys lay spent and sticky in their underwear. Nico’s hands still grip the sheets, his knuckles ghostly white.

Percy lays there a long time, his eyes closed, before he chuckles and rises. He walks to Nico’s bathroom and retrieves a washcloth to wipe himself off. He throws Nico the towel and starts to dress. Nico panics. Percy is leaving! This will never happen again!

“Percy, wait!” Nico cries, and Percy turns his head to look at Nico. “Don’t go. We, I, I think I’m going to leave camp again. It’s not working out here for me.”

Percy cocks his head and listens.

“Come with me.” Nico says it breathlessly, barely above a whisper, because he’s too afraid to make it real.

There is a beat where Nico thinks Percy is considering it. He walks back to Nico and slides his finger against the leftover dab of cum on Nico’s stomach. He slips his finger into his mouth and kisses Nico’s cheek.

Then he turns and walks away.

“I’d never leave Annie. Have a safe trip, Nico,” he says, before he opens the door and leaves.

Nico is broken. He is hurting so badly. He showers quickly and runs to find Jason.

 

xxxxxxxxxxx

 

 _Jason!_ the alarm bell in Nico's head goes off. He is kissing someone who is not Jason.

He shoves Percy with all his might, and Percy stumbles back onto the bed, his shoulder hitting the side of the pizza box and scattering the remaining pieces on the floor.

“I love Jason,” Nico says, and he means it more than he’s ever meant anything in his life. He would not change anything, not even Bianca’s death, if it meant he couldn’t have Jason. “I would never leave him.”

“Bastard,” Percy says. “Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me.”

Nico is tempted to leave. He wants so badly to be away from this place and this boy. This man. His very own Peter Pan.

“Come home, Percy, please.” Nico hates begging. It never works and sounds terrible. He finds himself begging.

“I can’t.”

“You won’t,” Nico corrects, and Percy doesn’t answer.

“And your daughter?” Nico asks.

“Annabeth is enough,” Percy says immediately, then thinks for a minute more before adding, “you’ll help her?”

Nico nods minutely.

“What do I tell Annie?” Nico asks.

Nico looks at Percy when Percy doesn’t answer immediately. Maybe he’s changed his mind. Maybe he’ll come home. What Nico sees breaks his heart. There is no trace of the boy he used to love. Or maybe there is too much.

“Tell her the boy she loved is dead,” he says, and the sadness in his eyes looks like it will tear him in two. “It would be the kindest thing.”

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Nico drops his bag in the entryway of their cramped apartment. He’ll pick it up in the morning, he promises himself. He walks down the narrow hallway and stops in the kitchen. He pours a glass of water and picks out a bag of chips from their narrow pantry.

Their bedroom door is open slightly and Nico can hear Jason’s snores before he ever gets in the room. Quietly, he sets the chips and water down on the nightstand on Jason’s side of the bed. He strips down to his underwear and meanders into the bathroom. When he emerges, he has four Advil.

Jason startles when he feels the bed dip. The headache from his hangover is brutal. It only intensifies when Nico turns on the light.

Jason screams at the sight of his lover. He pulls Nico close and laughs and cries in Nico’s ear. Jason’s stomach jumps when Nico pushes him to the bed and kisses him fiercely. Too soon, Nico breaks the kiss and helps Jason sit. Nico reaches over Jason and hands him the bottle of water, the chips, and the Advil.

Jason takes them gratefully.

“I thought you hated when I get crumbs in the bed?” Jason asks.

“I do.”

Jason asks what happened. Nico will tell him, but he needs to be with him first. Their lovemaking this night is feverish, then slow and sensual the second time. 

When they are done, wrapped in one another's arms, Nico says, “I love you.”

Jason smiles. “I love you, too.”

“You don’t understand. I love you. I cannot live without you. I can’t die without you, either. No more risking my life, unless I’m risking it for you.”

Jason is too stunned to do more than nod his head dumbly. He’s even more stunned when Nico slips the skull ring off his bony finger, the same ring he’s had since before he was a teenager, and places it on Jason’s hand.

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

On the other side of New Rome, Annabeth sits up and rocks her baby and wonders what happened to her husband.


End file.
